


Axis Mundi

by Lady_Caryatid



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Childhood Memories, Familial Relationships, Historical Hetalia, Historical References, M/M, Tea, axis mundi, far East brothers, historical foreshadowing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 21:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6095215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Caryatid/pseuds/Lady_Caryatid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Japan shares a tranquil meeting with his former Teacher in the midst of a chaotic time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Axis Mundi

**Author's Note:**

> (time period is pretty vague but should be roughly between the second opium war and the first Sino-Japanese War)

“You’ve gotten taller!” is the first thing China says to him, opening the door smiling hospitably when Japan arrives on the doorstep.  “It’s been so long! Although I still doubt you’ll pass _me_ in height."

China’s house sits far removed from the noise and busyness of the coast, and it’s just the same as Japan remembers from his childhood visits–nestled in the midst of the forest, floors swept clean but cluttered full of various artifacts and prizes from the illustrious past.

“Look here.” China kneels down and digs out a box from under the shelf, and takes out a loose stack of paper all covered with wobbly ink drawings of animals, people, plants, and a even a few combinations of the above. He hands some over to Japan. “Remember these? You were quite the artist yourself back in the day, once I taught you how to finally hold a brush correctly.”

He dashes off from room to room, leaving Japan to follow and observe the place he had once frequented as a child. China likes to display his most prized possessions on his wall, and he can still remember China retelling the stories surrounding each precious item to him.

“So what have you been up to?” China asks that evening when they’re both sitting outside, sipping their tea and drinking in the silence of the forest around them. 

 _Haven’t you heard?_ Japan wants to respond, since its not as if events have been kept particularly secret. 

“I’ve been busy.” It’s Japan's automatic response now whenever anyone inquires his way. China is disappointed at his former protegé’s laconicness, but not surprised; it’s not as if Japan had been much of a chatterbox even in his younger days. As for Japan, he’s still unsure how he would explain everything that’s happened to him the past few decades, as he’s still processing much of it himself.

“Haven’t we all! I’m sure I’ve been more busy than you, in fact. That’s why I’ve come out here. The cities and farms may go to ruin every half-century, but here–it’s always been peaceful here, in this corner of the country.”  He pours the both of them some more tea, and the steam from their cups wafts upwards into the night. 

“You can’t hide away from the world forever.” he says. 

“Why does everyone say that to me?” China scoffs in irritation, a bit more aggressively than probably intended. “There’s one thing you should know about me, I don't _hide_. I’ve just spent too much time in the city and outside of my own borders, watching the ports. Here, this is where I _am_. ”

“It’s just that times are changing, Teacher."

“You think I don’t know that?” China retorts, his air of confidence lapsing for a moment. “No one knows _change_ better than me.”

 _And what are you doing about it_ , Japan wants to argue back. _You don’t want to change. This is why you’ve already lost_.

To Japan and rest of the world, China had always seemed like a distant, mysterious constant, like one of his holy mountains, pillars to the sky, the axes around which heaven and earth revolve. But this is a the modern age, Japan considers. An age when gigantic metal ships can now speed across the sea powered by heat and steam, iron railcars connect previously distant towns, an age where the Middle Kingdom is no longer the center, no longer the formidable force that he once was. After all, in this age, even mountains could be blasted and hewn to accommodate the changing landscape. 

“It’s getting chilly.” says China, gathering their cups and breaking Japan’s train of thought. “Are you staying tonight? Your room is just the same as it was before, although I did have to tidy it up a bit earlier. I’d been storing boxes of manuscripts in there."

“I would like that very much.” says Japan, trying to smile, trying to be grateful.

  _Same as it was before._  

Walking inside, he catches a glimpse of China's face in the moonlight, looking pensive and weary, no doubt all too aware of the shifting forces of power in the world, and Japan understands why the old house, temple-like in its secludedness, full of reminders of past power and victory, has become a sort of refuge, a new kind of sacred center, however fragile. 

A mere house can’t protect him from anything in the long run, Japan muses to himself, bedding down for the night in the room he had once spent so much of his childhood in decades and centuries ago. 

**Author's Note:**

> for those of you wondering yes i am thinking of the same house in the "Story of China and Japan Strips." :/ The haven isn't a haven for long...
> 
> As for what an Axis Mundi is: 
> 
> "The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, center of the world, world tree), in certain beliefs and philosophies, is the world center, or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet" (Wikipedia)
> 
> In China there were five particular mountains that served as such connections and sacred places, also were symbols of imperial power.


End file.
